Skandera and Brooks both claim credit for growth in the graduation rate.

In the Journal this morning, link, NM Education Secretary argues that the path she has plotted for public education in the state, has among other things; raised the graduation rate state wide.

In 2013, the students, teachers, and parents of New Mexico gave us a lot to talk about. The graduation rate in our state shot up from 63 percent to 70 percent in a single year, with our minority students making double the gains of their Anglo counterparts.

The Secretary didn't mention Brooks as being a player in that growth, though the leadership of the APS have routinely claimed that Superintendent Winston Brooks is responsible for a similar jump in APS graduation statistics.

It is Brooks' own claim and one echoed by School Board President Marty Esquivel as recently as the moo moo oink oink brouhaha.

It was in fact Esquivel's main reason (supposedly) for not firing Brooks over the poor example he set.

In fact neither Skandera's plan nor Brooks' is responsible for a very good part of the growth in graduation rates.

Statistical machinations are responsible for the increased graduation rate.

At one point, students were expected to graduate in four years.  A decision was made to give them another year and the graduation rate increased - nothing really changed, graduation rates climbed.

Another machination, link, removing from the cohort, any students who had already failed the ninth grade, raised the rate again, and again not as a proximate result of any success either of them claims to have enjoyed or the reforms they imposed.



photos Mark Bralley